UPDATE: Severe Weather Impacts: Mt Isa and surrounds

Severe Weather events impact service in Mount Isa and surrounding part of the North West District of Queensland.

As previously notified, normal operations in Mount Isa and surrounding part of the North West District of Queensland were affected by a series of severe weather events on or about Sunday 22 January 2017. The telecommunications network in these areas have experienced high levels of damage that resulted in delays to installation and repair activities on a significant number of services. Due to the extent of damage to the network, the impact in the affected region has been greater than initially estimated, and as a consequence of the continued weather effects, the expected recovery date has now been extended to 5 March 2017.

Based on current information, the resumption date of normal service operations is expected to be 5 March 2017. This date is indicative only; customers should anticipate that some further delays may occur. QTelecom regrets any inconvenience caused to customers and thanks them for their patience while this work is being undertaken.

Services encompassed in this exemption are in the area bounded by and including, but is not limited to, the area starting at Lake Julius heading south to Duchess, west to the Boulia-Mt Isa Hwy (83), north to the Barkly Hwy (A2) then northeast back to Lake Julius. All suburbs and towns serviced within these boundaries are encompassed in this exemption.

Services in the area mentioned above with phone numbers in the following number ranges may have been affected:

07 4437 3000 To 07 4437 3999

07 4769 9000 To 07 4769 9999

07 4740 0000 To 07 4749 9999

As these circumstances were outside of QTelecom’s control, QTelecom is claiming an extension to time frames applying under the Telecommunications (Customer Service Guarantee) Standard 2011. This means that QTelecom is notifying customers that normal service time frames may not be met during the period of 23 January 2017 to 5 March 2017 inclusive (based on estimated recovery schedule correct at the time of publication of this notice).